Mud Wrestling

As tired as she was, Aurielle refused to let training lapse for those under her mentorship. So with the grey dawn barely light enough to see the horizon, she waited by the stream, dewclaw deep in the mud, and howled for Caelia. Today it was mud-sparring, learning to hold one’s footing and balance in slick, gloopy mud. She and Loshir had spent the past hour filling a bladder with water and soaking this spot to make it a veritable wallow, and she wore much of the evidence of her work on her white coat.

She glanced to Loshir who sprawled grumpily on solid, dry ground, his black fur just as splotched and smeared as hers, and his tail and glower spoke loud volumes of how little he liked wearing mud. Ideally, Aurielle planned to edge Caelia’s training into blind fighting. Mud would be smeared over the Nerve’s closed eyes to imitate blindness. With luck, rigorous training sessions like this would mean that Caelia would not need to rely on sight to fight.

As her call echoed against the lone hill in the center of the plains, she experimentally swiped a paw through the muck, testing her footing and nodding to herself thoughtfully. It should be slick enough to prove a challenge.

Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Hear" ---- Think